Even though half of Blue Dog caucus was decimated in the 2010 midterm elections, they think they can still get their way. They've been blaming Speaker Pelosi in the press loudly for the midterm losses, while ignoring their culpabilities that led them to their present situation. And they're plotting to continue undermining Nancy Pelosi as Minority Leader:
Meanwhile, Blue Dogs are working on a series of potential rules changes that would tear away Pelosi's authority to essentially appoint the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the co-chairmen of the Steering and Policy Committee, which hands out legislative committee assignments to rank-and-file lawmakers.
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Reps. Dan Boren (D-Okla.) and Larry Kissell (D-N.C.), who have said publicly that they do not support Pelosi's effort to transition from speaker of the House to minority leader, are among those drafting proposals to loosen Pelosi's grip on party leadership structures.
There's more they're planning to do to Pelosi as Minority Leader. It turned my stomach when I read their plans, and it'll turn your stomach as well.
Here are their ideas on how to undermine Pelosi as Minority Leader. Even if these tactics aren't used, their being discussed is grotesque and shows how little loyalty and appreciation they have for how Speaker Pelosi has helped cover for Blue Dogs on some of the bills, by counting votes, and allowing them to vote against bills as long as the overall vote count ensured passage of the bills. Speaker Pelosi also has been cognizant of the conservative districts these Blue Dog Democrats live in, and even has worked to help fundraise for them, and this is how they repay her?
According to senior aides, the tactics that have been discussed by members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition and other Democratic moderates include:
• Holding Blue Dog meetings at the same time as Democratic Caucus meetings, under the logic that if Pelosi isn’t going to listen to them, they don’t need to listen to her.
• Taking down a rule during the lame-duck session to express their displeasure with the Speaker and embarrass her on the floor.
• Pushing to make the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee an elected position to weaken the Democratic leader’s power.
• Getting members to sign letters expressing their displeasure at the Speaker and threatening not to run for re-election if she remains.
• Making a push to enforce term limits against Reps. George Miller (Calif.) and Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), Pelosi’s closest allies, in their roles as co-chairmen of the Steering and Policy Committee.
• Opening formal negotiations with Republicans on budget cuts or other issues and cutting Pelosi out of the talks.
The aides acknowledged that the ideas aren’t particularly productive and most will probably never see the light of day, but frustrated moderates don’t know what else to do. "Frustration is the understatement of the year," one senior moderate aide said. "Everybody feels like they got kicked in the teeth."
There's more in the story in case you want to read it. It's time we have better Democrats, so if you want better Democrats, then the time to begin identifying them starts right now! It means that we have to focus on finding good primary opponents, and running actual Democrats against Republican incumbents as well. I am not arguing that we decimate the Blue Dog Caucus, but to further grow and expand the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and prevent these Blue Dog Democrats from forming a working majority with Republicans. In doing so, we basically neuter the Blue Dog Democratic Caucus.